Campbell resumes job for Niceville

A week after being arrested on perjury and official misconduct charges, former Okaloosa County Commissioner James Campbell is back at work as Niceville’s recreation director.

He said he has no plans to leave the job he has held for the past 36 years. Campbell and Niceville City Manager Lannie Corbin met Monday and agreed that he would return to work today.

“I’ll be at work like normal,” he said. “My employment is still my employment. I haven’t been convicted of anything, and, hopefully, I won’t be.”

Campbell said he was encouraged that several employees, including Corbin, had offered to donate vacation and sick hours to him if he needed them in the future.

“I will continue on,” he said. “I’ll be back at work (Tuesday).”

The 64-year-old Campbell was arrested Sept. 17 and charged with four counts of perjury and four counts of official misconduct after a four-month investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Campbell is accused of using his position as a county commissioner to solicit sponsorship donations for the Boggy Bayou Mullet Festival. Authorities also say he failed to report thousands of dollars he made in commissions on securing the sponsorships for the festival committee.

Under state law, county commissioners, among dozens of other elected officials, must report any source of income that exceeds $1,000 to the Florida Commission on Ethics.

Campbell said the charges are baseless.

“This is about nothing,” he said. “This is about some paperwork or maybe some bad judgment. There was never any criminal intent.”

But State Attorney Bill Eddins said Campbell broke the law when he solicited sponsorships from Northwest Florida Regional Airport and the tourist development department, which are county-run enterprises.

Corbin said last week that the Boggy Bayou Mullet Festival had the sponsorship arrangement with Campbell for at least 12 years. He said the festival committee paid Campbell a 20 percent commission on all the sponsorships he produced.

But Campbell’s commissions exceeded 20 percent on two occasions, according to his FDLE arrest report.

In 2006, he received a payment of $1,750 for landing a $2,500 sponsorship from Hammock Bay Real Estate. In 2005, Campbell received two payments totaling $2,000 on a $6,666 sponsorship donated by Cellular South.

Campbell disputed the FDLE’s dollar amounts on Monday.

“They got it wrong,” he said, adding that his commissions from the Boggy Bayou Mullet Festival were 20 percent “to the dime.”

FDLE spokesman Keith Kameg said the agency’s numbers are correct.

“As far as the 20 percent, we’re not talking about that,” he said. “Our concern was the actual dollar amount.”

Corbin could not be reached for comment Monday.

Campbell, who has served as a commissioner for eight years, was suspended by Gov. Rick Scott. He has only a few weeks remaining in his term before giving up his seat to incoming commissioner Kelly Windes.

Scott will make the final decision about whether to appoint someone to Campbell’s seat ahead of schedule.

“Governor Scott is reviewing this seat and will make a decision in the near future,” said Jackie Schutz, deputy press secretary for Scott.